HYDERABAD: Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Adeel Siddiqui has expressed his serious concern over poor condition of roads in

the city’s industrial estate, and accused the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE) of meting out step-motherly treatment to Hyderabad. He urged the caretaker chief minister to take notice of alleged maladministration in SITE.

In a statement issued here on Monday, Mr Siddiqui said that industrial production was being badly affected due to unavailability or disruption in electricity, water and gas supplies. The conditions, coupled with badly damaged road network, were causing a rise in the cost of products manufactured at SITE’s industrial units.

He pointed out that streetlights remained almost nonexistent and the area often used to plunge into darkness after sunset. This, he said, was reflective of incompetence of the departments concerned.

Accuses SITE of ‘step-motherly treatment’ to Hyderabad

The HCCI chief said that encroachment and sewage had destroyed environment as drainage lines had not been cleared for years.

He said that doing away with SITE’s sewerage pumping station was not a wise step because industrialists always faced inundation during rainfall. He called for restoration of the pumping station.

Mr Siddiqi maintained that due to destruction of road network following the 2022 rains and

flooding, industrialists were facing serious problems in transporting goods.

He reminded the authorities concerned that these industries contributed funds to around 35 departments, and regretted that Sindh government never gave a serious consideration to industries, which were backbone of the provincial as well as national economy.

The HCCI president said industrialists were contributing billions of rupees to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) besides paying taxes to SITE. He said that the Hyderabad Engineering Support Centre in the Sindh Small Industries Corporation was established by the federal industries ministry to train manpower for industrial machinery parts.

However, he said, due to unavailability of electricity supply the working of this centre was being affected seriously. He said that technical classes remained incomplete with the result that youths’ precious time was being wasted. He said that it was high time

that this centre was supplied uninterrupted electricity on a war-footing basis.

Mr Siddiqui also pointed out that Hyderabad city had a population of 3.5m yet no new industrial estate was being established which showed that steps to create employment opportunities kept eluding Hyderabad, which had always been neglected.

The HCCI chief urged the caretaker CM, Justice Maqbool Baqir, to prepare a comprehensive plan for expeditious progress of Hyderabad and other districts of Sindh and give this plan immediate effect. He said that people should be provided employment so that they were able to bear the burden of price hike.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2023